LHS Class of 1950 is doing it again...another
class reunion...we are getting together for the 55th anniversary of our
High School graduation!
The dates are September 23, 24, 25. We
will be getting together at the Elks Lodge for dinner on Friday evening,
23rd. Then on Saturday, 24th, we have several things planned. Some
will be touring one of our apple orchards and then on to a Winery tour where we
will see the processing of grapes and how they get to be wine! Some may go
to one of the casinos...
Our big event will be our dinner on Saturday
evening at the Moose Lodge in Lexington. We will be gathering at 6:00 for
visiting, eating at 7:00 and more visiting, updates, etc.
Visitors will be welcome after 9:00 on Saturday
evening If anyone would like to come visit with Class members that
evening. There will be music for dancing and lots of good
conversation.
We will wind up our week-end with a breakfast
on Sunday morning at the Lexington Inn at 9:00. We are looking
forward to a good time and lots of "remember when."
As for the old hometown, all of the old
bridge is down except for the last section over land on our south side. For the
complete photo story, courtesy of Mary Nicodemus at Citron Communications, go
to:
Click on News
& Events at the bottom of the page; then click on Tourism to see the complete sequence of destruction.
Our old bridge served us well.
Just today the state Missouri Community
Betterment judges visited Lexington to receive a presentation by our local
Community Betterment organization which will determine if we
(Lexington) win any awards at the state conference in
October.
The 5 projects of the time frame
8/1/04-7/31/05 that we presented included:
- The Vietnam Wall replica visiting
Lexington;
- The "LIVE! in Lexington" concert
series;
- The Congressman Ike Skelton Bridge
Dedication ceremonies;
- The Community Development Block Grant
project which demolished condemned
buildings,
cleared the lots for new construction, and relocated affected
residents;
- The Lexington 4 Life
project.
All are efforts you can be proud
of.
As we prepared for the presentation, we
heard another explosion as one of the bridge piers was taken down. Soon all
that will be left is a memory.
Make that plural. Several memories came
floating in after the last TLC:
This from Jan Jiovenale '57
Tubiolo:
Here are my personal BRIDGE
MEMORIES:
#1. The river flooded in 1951 (and again in
1952) and the water came to the base of the bridge ramp on the Ray county
side. My Grandad had a row boat moored at the end of the bridge
because both his and his father's farms were across the river and while
Great-grandpa Matt's farm was under water on the flatlands, our farm was in the
foothills west of Henrietta and the animals still had to be fed, so he
rowed over about every other day. I could go to the bottom of
the bridge, but was not allowed to go with him because it took a full day to
make the trip and because of the horrible smell of dead fish. We did drive
through the bottoms once the water went down, but it was truly horrible
with muddy water and dead animals (mainly fish), everywhere.
#2 The first summer I got
permission to ride my horse, Prince, to town for the summer from our farm near
Henrietta it was an adventure. It's about 8 or 9 miles away and the trip
was exciting for me but pretty uneventful, until we got onto the bridge.
My stirrup was even with the bridge railing, but I sat much higher and
it looked a lonnnnng way across and a lonnnnng way down. I wasn't too
worried because my horse was pretty calm since I used to ride him in parades, so
it didn't bother him but it sure made me jittery, especially
when twice drivers drove up behind and honked to scare the horse.
Most people were very polite and patient and we made it fine. It was
always a one-way trip though - he went home in a trailer in the
fall.
And finally, from Lucia Cope '59
Hulston:
Funny to read all the references to the "old
bridge," as in our family it was for a long time referred to as the "new
bridge," since before its construction, my grandfather, Tilton Davis, ran ferry
boats across the river.
More mail and more news next time. Till
then I remain
Your
Devoted Scribe,
Susan